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What

The National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, in partnership with The Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, will open a special exhibition of more than 40 minerals that are crucial to human health and biomedicine. “Minerals in Medicine” is designed to enthrall and enlighten NIH Clinical Center’s patients, their loved ones, and the NIH community. Media are invited into America’s Research Hospital, the NIH Clinical Center, to experience this unique exhibition during a ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday September 12 at 4pm.

Beyond taking in the minerals’ arresting beauty, spectators can learn about their important role in keeping the human body healthy, and in enabling the creation of life-saving medicines and cutting edge medical equipment that is used in the NIH Clinical Center and healthcare facilities worldwide. The exhibition, which is on an eighteen-month loan from the National Museum of Natural History, includes specimens that were handpicked from the museum’s vast collection by NIH physicians in partnership with Smithsonian Institution geologists. Some of the minerals on display were obtained regionally as they are part of the Maryland and Virginia landscape.

Who

John I. Gallin, M.D., Director of the NIH Clinical Center

Jeffrey E. Post, Ph.D., Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, Chair of the Department of Mineral Sciences and Curator of the National Gem and Mineral Collection

How

About the NIH Clinical Center: The NIH Clinical Center is the clinical research hospital for the National Institutes of Health. Through clinical research, clinician-investigators translate laboratory discoveries into better treatments, therapies and interventions to improve the nation's health. More information: http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):
NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.